This invention relates generally to security systems for protecting members of the public during processing of a queue of successively arriving persons entering or doing business in a secure area, such as a bank or a secured area for departing airline passengers. More particularly, the invention relates to a system for screening or monitoring persons in a queue and isolating and temporarily confining any specific person, who might be transporting weapons or materials deemed to be a threat to others in the secure area.
There are many situations when a person, who is possibly carrying a weapon or harmful substance, must be checked for the presence of these items before being allowed to proceed to a secure area, or to do business where money or other valuable objects are exchanged. There is a long history of protective devices intended to shield bank tellers from an individual who might be carrying a weapon. Devices suggested in the early prior art include U.S. Pat. No. 1,008,125 issued Nov. 7, 1911 to Eichelkraut. That patent describes a security chamber for regulating and controlling the access of persons to cashier""s windows in banks, post offices, theaters and the like, having an interlocking arrangement between the door and the cash window, whereby the window can only be opened when the door is closed and whereby the door can only be opened when the window is closed. This concept has been expanded in patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,338 issued to Hastings on Sep. 28, 1988, wherein a group of cylindrical modules of transparent bullet-proof glass or plastic are positioned in front of respective bank tellers. The Hastings patent provides for the teller to override the individual""s control over the doors to the modules, so as to temporarily confine the occupant until the police arrive. While this system is adequate to confine a single person once the person has exposed a weapon or made a threat while inside a module, it does nothing to detect the weapon or harmful substance in advance of entering the module and consequently exposes the surrounding personnel to injury.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,827 issued Jun. 29, 1976 to Reeves takes a more direct approach by dropping a bullet-proof transparent cage over a criminal who is unfortunate enough to be standing beneath the cage.
A more sophisticated arrangement for detecting weapons, including x-raying hand luggage and interrogating a person seeking passage from a non-secure area to a secure area is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,441 issued May 6, 1986 to Zekich. This system employs a first partitioned revolving door leading to a detection chamber, from which the person departs via a second partitioned revolving door. A search room adjoins the detection chamber and is equipped with door interlocks preventing escape of an individual in the search room. Zekich proposes a number of high security sensors and identification detection devices such as a metal detector, air sampling, excess weight detection, hand geometry reading and so forth. A bullet-proof wall protects the interrogation personnel, but there is no means to protect other people in the queue being screened.
Recently, heightened security measures are being applied at airports to closely monitor departing airline passengers. Traditionally, unorganized queues of passengers place their hand luggage upon conveyor belts passing through an x-ray machine, and then walk through metal detection gates to retrieve their hand luggage.
Randomly, the passengers are checked with metal detection wands and hand luggage is inspected. These measures have proved to be inadequate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,567 issued Jan. 30, 1979 to Grube discloses a system for passengers to accompany both their hand luggage and checked luggage, including weighing the passenger both at the security check point and at the boarding gate. However, presence of a dangerous substance or weapon found at either location poses danger to surrounding passengers and security personnel.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to process a queue from a non-secure area to a secure area, while checking the persons in the queue and protecting surrounding personnel.
Another object of the invention is to provide a secure transit of passengers to an aircraft while detecting weapons or harmful substances carried by passengers.
Still another object of the invention is to provide secure processing of multiple queues and temporarily confining a person in a queue found to possess threatening objects.
Briefly stated, the invention is practiced by providing a security system for monitoring and protecting personnel in an area including at least one queue of successively arriving individuals, comprising a plurality of at least three contiguous chambers, including an entry chamber, an exit chamber and at least one intermediate chamber, said chambers each having bullet-proof transparent walls and bullet-proof doors, said doors including an entry door to the entry chamber, an exit door from the exit chamber, a common door between each intermediate chamber and said contiguous chamber, said doors having remotely controlled locks, means for monitoring a selected individual in a selected chamber, and an automated door interlock system arranged and adapted to remotely unlock selected locks to pass individuals successively through said chambers, and to lock selected locks to detain selected individuals during monitoring.